This report focuses on ways we can use land and
ecosystem accounting techniques to describe and
monitor the consequences of biodiversity loss in
the coastal wetlands of the Mediterranean. These
ecosystems are characterised by the close coupling of
economic, social and ecological processes, and any
accounting system has to represent how these key
elements are linked and change over time. This report
discusses the importance of estimating the ecological
and social costs of maintaining these systems, and the
problems surrounding providing monetary estimates
of the services associated with wetlands. It also shows
how individual wetland socio-ecological systems (SES)
can be defined and mapped using the remotely sensed
land cover information from Corine Land Cover.

Protected areas provide a wide range of services in a context of increasing pressures and a rapidly changing environment. Europe is the region with the greatest number of protected areas in the world but they are relatively small in size. Europe's Natura 2000, unique in the world and still young, and the Emerald network under development, are international European networks of protected areas that catalyse biodiversity conservation.